#VietnamCryptoPolicy

🏛️ 1. Legal status

•Cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, etc.) are not legal tender in Vietnam – they cannot be used for payment. Issuing, supplying, or using them as currency can lead to fines up to ~₫200 million (≈ $8,000)  .

•However, trading and holding crypto as virtual assets is allowed, though not yet formally recognized under law.

🚧 2. Regulatory development & pilot framework

•Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) were ordered by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính to submit a legal framework for managing digital assets by March 2025.

•A pilot (sandbox) digital-asset exchange is in deployment. Announcement in March 2025 said a regulated exchange would start trial operation by end‑March in financial hubs like Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

•As of Feb 2025, MoF expressed that more time is needed before setting a firm launch date for commercial operations—no confirmed start date in 2026 yet .

🧩 3. Scope & issues covered

The regulatory sandbox is planned to cover:

•Crypto trading platforms and commodity exchanges

•Issuance, trading, ownership of NFTs and utility tokens

•Crypto mining, with oversight related to cybersecurity, energy consumption, and AML/CFT risks   .

• Regulations will include licensing, cybersecurity, and anti-money‑laundering provisions .

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📈 4. Adoption, risks & tax

• Vietnam ranks among the top global crypto adopters (Chainalysis ranks it 3rd–5th) with ~17 million holders and a market value over $100 billion.

•The country is under FATF grey-list monitoring, which is pushing reforms to curb money‑laundering and illicit financing using crypto .

•Taxation remains vague: crypto is currently unrecognized as an asset, so there’s no formal capital gains tax—although income transferred from exchanges to banks might be taxed as personal income.

🔍 Bottom line

Vietnam is rapidly moving from a crypto grey zone to regulated structure.